lordhellebore: (diet icon)
Cato ([personal profile] lordhellebore) wrote in [personal profile] mothwing 2010-06-18 06:53 am (UTC)

Food and diet products are often advertised with the language of morality. Words such as “guilt” and “sin” are often used to sell food.

True. Being or becoming thin is implied to be the "good" and "right" and "ethical", while it's suggested implicitly - or even out loud - that being fat is immoral. There is a whole complex if immoral associations coming with being fat: lazy, gluttonous, sloppy, not caring about self - and who can care about others if he can't even take care of himself? To refer to food in terms of morality only makes sense, since it is considered the thing that makes people fat.

Thinness is today’s equivalent of virginity.

I can see that. Virginity, especially in women, at whom the ideal of thinness is directed more than at men, is still considered somewhat of a virtue, and being thin is virtuous as opposed to the immorality of being fat and all the things associated with being fat.

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